Category Archives: Listening & Spoken Language

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Stephanie is 8 years old. She was identified at 1 ½ years old with a moderate hearing loss. She was diagnosed at 5 years old with autism. Her parents, Dan and Shelly, work full time and they just welcomed a newborn to their family. Stephanie attends school at the public school down the street from her house.

7:15 AM

Dan is out of town on business, and Shelly is scrambling to get Stephanie out the door on time. Her bus arrives at 7:30 and Stephanie is just now getting dressed. Shelly tries to get Stephanie to move more quickly, but Shelly is also holding a crying newborn. Juggling two children has proved more difficult than Shelly imagined. In the hustle and bustle of the morning, she forgets to put new batteries in Stephanie’s hearing aids.

Lately, with things being more hectic around their home, Stephanie’s progress has waned and Dan and Shelly are concerned. Stephanie is not reading on grade level and the other children in her class are making age-appropriate academic gains. They are on the waiting list at the Marcus Autism Center’s Language and Learning Clinic, where Stephanie will receive services to help her improve her communication and social skills.

Sara spends hours on the bus with Harry every week, to and from services, work, and daycare. Here is a language lesson that any parent like Sara could use to incorporate language into their daily bus ride.

Using the TALK strategy: Become a narrator of your child’s world by using the TALK strategy and Tune In, Ask Questions, Lift the Language, and Keep it Going to what your child is looking at and naming it or describing what’s happening.

Vocabulary: Tier 1 words (basic words) for younger children or children with 1-2 spoken/signed words (i.e. trees, cars, bus, train, people, eating, running, jumping, let’s hurry, uh oh!) and Tier 2 words for older children (3 years and up) or children with 3 or more words spoken or signed

Meet Harry, who is 24 months old. He was identified at 8 months old with a profound hearing loss. He now has bilateral cochlear implants. His mom, Sara, has chosen Listening & Spoken Language as his modality. They receive services at the Auditory Verbal Center.

8:03 AM

Sara has slept through her alarm and baby Harry’s auditory-verbal therapy is at 10 AM on the other side of town. When Sara realizes this, she rushes to get Harry up and ready to go. Their bus picks them up at 8:25, so they don’t have even a second to lose. If they miss this bus, they will miss their therapy appointment, which will take another four weeks to reschedule. At 8:24, they make it to their bus stop, which is, luckily, right outside their apartment. They hop on the bus and head off to the Auditory Verbal Center.

Sara has been tossing and turning for the past six months, ever since her pediatrician told her that if Harry doesn’t receive the proper early intervention services, he will not have the language he needs to learn how to read. Sara’s a single mother whose worries range from How will I make rent this month? to Will my baby ever talk?

She wonders if she’s reading to him enough, talking to him enough, interacting with him enough.

Harry is a happy baby, interested in the world around him and the new sounds he hears every day. He enjoys reading books with his mommy and he has just started saying “mama.” Sara was overjoyed to hear her baby boy speak her name…

One of the most important early steps in [language and] speech development is to copy or imitate movements.

Helping your child learn to imitate movements will improve eye contact and interaction. Set aside one or two periods a day to focus on movement imitation. Establish a time and place that eliminates distracting noises and reduces visual distractions. No specific time period is recommended. You know your child best. Remember these sessions should be enjoyable for you and your child.

To begin, sit at your child’s eye level in a face to face position. This will assist eye contact and help direct attention. Children may be in a high chair during these play sessions to focus attention and reduce the tendency to roam the house. The following activities are perfect for beginning to learn to imitate.

Make a box of functional objects that can be used for imitation. Your box may include: cups, blocks, cars, spoons, balls, hats, small boxes to open and close, toy hammer, toy vehicles, etc.

There is no specific number of skills that your child must learn. The above activities are suggestions. Use your imagination!

The above article was written by Linda Mawhinney & Mary Scott McTeague, which can be found in their book, Early Language Development. You can find their book online.

Did you know that babies’ eye contact is linked to language development?

Here are a few things you can do at home to develop eye contact with your baby:

According to Linda Mawhinney and Mary Scott McTeague,

“Sit face to face with your child. Attempt to place your child higher than you. Examples of possible positions: sit your child on your lap; sit in a chair and place your child in a high chair or booster seat; place your child on the couch or chair and sit on the floor in front of him/her.”

“To draw your child’s attention, hold objects near your face to help guide your child without verbalizing. Often words do not have meaning and for other children, a verbal cue could cause him/her to tune you out.”

“Tap your child’s nose and then your own nose. After the child looks, even for a brief second, reward him/her by signing/saying ‘Good looking!'”

“Put your child’s hand on your face to gain attention before giving him/her a direction to follow or a choice.”

“Eliminate or reduce auditory and visual distractions, like the television, radio, etc. This helps your child focus on you.”

“Play ‘funny face’ games in the mirror. Your child can establish eye contact with you in the mirror.”

NPR also did a piece highlighting the link between babies’ eye contact and language development, which you can read or listen to by clicking here. The transcript from the radio show can be found below.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Next, we hear about research that links babies’ early eye contact with their later language development. Reporter Michelle Trudeau tells us that a study appearing in the current issue of Developmental Studies pinpoints how this connection emerges.

MICHELLE TRUDEAU reporting:

Researchers at the University of Washington videotaped babies to try and capture an important transition in infants’ social development. When is it that babies begin to follow the direction of another person’s gaze? Psychologist Rechele Brooks and Andrew Meltzoff studied about a hundred babies, nine-month-olds, 10-month-olds and 11-month-olds. In a quiet room at the university’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, Brooks would sit at a table across from a baby who’d be on Mom’s lap. Down at each end of the table, there was a bright plastic toy.

Ms. RECHELE BROOKS (Researcher, University of Washington): So I would look at the baby. The baby would be looking at me. And once I had established eye contact, that’s when I took that moment to turn to the side.

TRUDEAU: Turning her head to the left or right, looking at one of the toys on the table. When Brooks did this, she sometimes had her eyes open but sometimes she shut her eyes just before she turned her head in the direction of the toy.

Ms. BROOKS: Nine-month-olds were consistently looking at the toy whether my eyes were open or closed. They did not really care. They seemed to be following my head motion rather than whether I can make eye contact with the toy or not.

TRUDEAU: Now bring in the 10-month-olds, same test, very different results.

Ms. BROOKS: Ten-month-olds, they’re going to look at the toy with me much more often when my eyes are open than when my eyes are closed.

TRUDEAU: So just 30 days later and babies will typically start to lock on to your eyes to discover an object. Now Brooks also recorded if the babies made any vocal sounds at the moment they looked at the toy with her. She and the moms were completely quiet. Here again the nine-month-olds didn’t vocalize but the 10- and 11-month-old babies did.

(Soundbite of baby)

Ms. BROOKS: It’s as if the baby goes, `Uh-huh, we’re looking at the same thing,’ and they seem to be making an extra connection.

(Soundbite of baby)

TRUDEAU: And that extra connection pays off later on. These little vocalizations made specifically when looking at the toy with Brooks are linked to later language development.

Ms. BROOKS: When children make that extra connection, when they’re looking at the same toy as the adult but they also go, `Hmm,’ that little extra vocalization, those kids are the ones that end up being more advanced with their language development.

TRUDEAU: Understanding twice as many words at 18 months as the babies who did not make those little sounds eight months earlier. So it’s the two behaviors coupled together at 10 and 11 months, first following a person’s eyes and then vocalizing upon seeing the toy that powerfully predicts later language comprehension. Developmental researcher Peter Mundy from the University of Miami calls this important milestone joint attention.

Mr. PETER MUNDY (Developmental Researcher, University of Miami): Watch how your baby begins to follow your gaze, and when they do follow, pay attention to that and respond to that because that’s a fundamental building block for language and social relatedness. And the more you can encourage it, the more fun you’re going to have with your infant and it may also have a benefit for their early development, as well.

TRUDEAU: Because it indicates, says Mundy, that your baby is beginning to understand your point of view and your intentions, essential early ingredients for a baby in becoming socially aware of other people.

You can learn more about language development in Linda Mawhinney and Mary Scott McTeague’s activity book, Early Language Development, published by Super Duper Publications.

In order to understand the importance of language, we have to know the difference between two commonly confused terms — speech and language.

What’s the difference?

SPEECH

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. It’s how spoken language is conveyed. Speech includes the following:

a) Articulation — how speech sounds are produced by the articulators (lips, teeth, tongue, palate, velum). For example, a child must be able to produce an /m/ sound to say “me.”

b) Voice — use of the vocal folds and exhalation to produce sound. The voice is characterized by pitch, loudness, and resonance (oral- or nasal-).

c) Fluency — how smoothly the sounds, syllables, words, and phrases are joined together in spoken language.

LANGUAGE

Language is a system of socially shared rules that are understood (i.e. Language Comprehension or Receptive Language) and expressed (i.e. Expressive Language and Written Language) that includes the following:

a) Form — how words are put together that make sense (syntax or grammar); also how new words are formed (morphology)

b) Content — what words mean (semantics)

c) Use — how the language is used to convey meaning in specific contexts (pragmatics)

The article outlines 12 best practices or goals “to facilitate the development of systems that are capable of continuously evaluating and improving the quality of care for infants/children who are D/HH and their families…[and] to promote quality assurance of EI programs from children from birth to age 3 years and their families.”

Goal 1: All children who are D/HH and their families have access to timely and coordinated entry into EI programs supported by a data management system capable of tracking families and children from confirmation of hearing loss to enrollment into EI services

Goal 2: All children who are D/HH and their families experience timely access to services coordinators who have specialized knowledge and skills related to working with individuals who are D/HH

Goal 3: All children who are D/HH from birth to 3 years of age and their families have EI providers who have the professional qualifications and core knowledge and skills to optimize the child’s development and child/family well-being

Goal 3a: Intervention services to teach ASL will be provided by professionals who have native or fluent skills and are trained to teach parents/families and young children

Goal 3b: Intervention services to develop listening and spoken language will be provided by professionals who have specialized skills and knowledge

Goal 4: All children who are D/HH with additional disabilities and their families have access to specialists who have the professional qualifications and specialized knowledge and skills to support and promote optimal developmental outcomes

Goal 5: All children who are D/HH and their families from culturally diverse backgrounds and/or from non-English-speaking homes have access to culturally competent services with provision of the same quality and quantity of information given to families from the majority culture

Goal 6: All children who are D/HH should have their progress monitored every 6 months from birth to 36 months of age, through a protocol that includes the use of standardized, norm-referenced developmental evaluations, for language (spoken and/or signed), the modality of communication (auditory, visual, and/or augmentative), social-emotional, cognitive, and fine and gross motor skills

Goal 7: All children who are identified with hearing loss of any degree, including those with unilateral or slight hearing loss, those with auditory neural hearing loss (Auditory Neuropathy), and those with progressive or fluctuating hearing loss, receive appropriate monitoring and immediate follow-up intervention services where appropriate

Goal 8: Families will be active participants in the development and implementation of EHDI systems at the state/territory and local levels

Goal 9: All families will have access to other families who have children who are D/HH and who are appropriately trained to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive support, mentorship, and guidance

Goal 10: Individuals who are D/HH will be active participants in the development and implementation of EHDI systems at the national, state/territory, and local levels; their participation will be an expected and integral component of the EHDI systems

Goal 11: All children who are D/HH and their families have access to support, mentorship, and guidance from individuals who are D/HH

Goal 12: As best practices are increasingly identified and implemented, all children who are D/HH and their families will be ensured of fidelity in the implementation of the intervention they receive

Here’s an awesome, interactive mini-book, featured on the website Playing with Words 365, about The Very Hungry Bunny. It’s a fun language-building activity for spring and for Easter, which is right around the corner. The book works on “building vocabulary, answering questions, counting, color ID, and more.”

Check out the website, www.playingwithwords365.com, by amazing mom/Speech Language Pathologist, Katie. Here is a glimpse at her credentials –